The April 2013 Loot Continues: Shirokuma Cafe Exclusive Merchandise

Continuing on with the anime merchandise loots I got in for the month, a whole bunch of Shirokuma Cafe items!

I had mentioned previously that the new deluxe prize set plushies of Panda and Penguin was definitely going to be purchased along with the small mascot toy prizes as well, both being run by Banpresto, and they’re finally here! 😀

Pictures can be enlarged by right-clicking “View Image”

So first up are the two deluxe prize plushies of Panda and Penguin. Like the first two deluxe plushies of Panda & Shirokuma, these two were put in UFO/crane catcher machines in Japan in March for people to play.

Both designs of the characters are based on the first opening theme video, “Boku ni Invitation”, of the anime series with Panda munching on some bamboo while Penguin wears a scarf (as seen in the scene where Shirokuma, Panda and Penguin are sitting in the car). Both plushies are also about 30cm high.

Panda

Although the bag that Panda is usually seen wearing whenever he goes out is not here, both sides of his cheeks have an added blush to further project his happy mood while he eats the bamboo.

Penguin

With Penguin’s plushie, his scarf also has a small bow attached. Unfortunately, the bow happened to become detached from the scarf which probably occurred when the item was being sent to Noppin’s warehouse in Japan as they told me it was already like that when they received the item. The bow isn’t a clip-on item as it appears to be have been originally sewn into the scarf. I wasn’t notified of this until it was being prepared for shipping as Noppin informed me that the “scarf” had come off leading me to believe that accessory had been lost; which then prompted me to get a 2nd plushie of Penguin off Yahoo Japan Auctions.

So now I have two of the deluxe Penguin plushies with the 2nd one currently in storage in Japan. Think I’ll probably sell off the one with the detached bow when I get in the 2nd plushie and whoever buys it will need to sew it back on if they intend to have it look like what it was supposed to be originally.

Gotta say I love the flippers on this Penguin plushie as they’re pretty light while hanging loosely on the sides and don’t have any stuffing inside in contrast to the main body. That and the fact that there are no eyes visible makes it look hilarious to me.

And also released back in March this year were five small prize mascot plushies of Shirokuma, Panda, Penguin, Grizzly and Llama-san put in the UFO/crane machines. I wanted the whole set so again it was off to Yahoo Japan Auctions to obtain them XD. These mascot plushies are intended to be attached to schoolbags, travel bags, pencil casebags etc, but I don’t think I’m gonna do that. Probably going to put them on display hooks in my room if I was to use them.

The llama mascot is the one I like the most out of the five as I’ve previously said that he is my favourite character from the Shirokuma Cafe anime series. That and the fact that he’s the only mascot plushie out of the five that can stand upright without the need to lean against something XD.

Each of these mugs were limited to only 300 made that was sold for 980 yen as part of a drink from the menu. It seems like a new one will be released each month and will feature a character from the series, they will also have a number indicated on the mug to let the owner know which one they got in the set. For the Panda mug, I got number 213, Grizzly was number 176 while Penguin’s was 144. I’m not sure if a mug was made that featured Shirokuma though, and there doesn’t seem to be any indication there was one made yet from the website above, but who knows, he’ll probably be the last one to be released lol.

As of yesterday the cafe recently released a 5th exclusive mug featuring Llama-san. Now I’m just waiting for it to pop up on Yahoo Japan Auctions to see if I can obtain it XD. Guardian Enzo, blog owner of “Lost in America: Anime & More“, recently took a trip to the Shirokuma Cafe in Takadanobaba and wrote about his experience there. Would definitely plan to visit that cafe should I travel to Japan sometime in the future.

Getting back to the mugs, the back side of the ones that featured characters all had the same logo title of Shirokuma Cafe.

And while we’re still on the topic of mugs, I got in another two Shirokuma Cafe mugs re-released by COSPA. Like I said before in another post, I’ve been building up a mug collection for the series which I’m contemplating on having a display for it whenever I get in some new display shelves or bookcases.

This one below makes me laugh since it’s obviously parodying the well known Starbucks logo lol.

And now for one more final item in this loot, a Shirokuma Cafe tumbler!

So that’s it for this post. I’ve still got another two to make from the anime merchandise loots I got this month that’s been stated before, hopefully I’ll be able to get both done before the month ends. As for more Shirokuma Cafe merchandise, there’s the special event DVD being released next month from Animate which contains footage of the event that was held in November last year exclusively for people who purchased the first three Animate limited edition blu-ray volumes of the anime series.

I’ve already put in my pre-order for it, but besides that and the on-going Animate limited edition BD releases for the series, my only goal would be to collect all the limited exclusive Shirokuma Cafe Takadanobaba mugs that seem to have a new one released every month since December last year. I wonder how many they intend to release given the large amount of supporting characters there are in the anime if they continue with featuring one of them each month. I’m just glad I’ve managed to get the first four so far as they haven’t popped up often on Yahoo Japan Auctions lately.